I’m not going to lie, I’m fighting off a massive hangover today. The only music existing in my media library that can supplement how shitty I feel is the debut release from San Jose natives The Conceal, entitled Endless River | Stunted Prayer, which just hit the internet like a cheap whiskey-infused dirty bomb last Monday. Since then, my ears have been giving it a lot of attention and I am enthusiastically impressed by this new act coming from the South Bay (aka that place where a bunch of bands try to sound like Dredg, Circa Survive, and anything Post-Rock).

The Conceal is a reboot of Flood Peak, headed by Mike McClatchey (ex-Clearing Autumn Skies, Apiary, Early Graves) that features a few down-tuned, slower rehashes of songs from Flood Peak’s EP Filling Flasks along with mostly new material. This being said, anyone expecting The Conceal to be anything like its former incarnation will be in for a big surprise. Endless River | Stunted Prayeris a 45 minute masterpiece of doom, sludge, feedback, and industrial influenced shit-rock that brings a refreshing sense of creativity to heavy music. There is no mimicry or trend-following here, only trendsetting.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week we present Desecrater from San Jose, CA.

For fans of Slayer, Death, Metallica, Megadeth, etc

If you like your metal with a constant barrage of double bass and shredding guitars, we’ve got the band for you. Desecrater hails from San Jose with no intention of slowing down or compromising their sound. Led by the bellowing low vocals of guitarist/vocalist Sid Frankosky, Desecrater seeks only to inspire circle pits and beer-fueled brawls. They’re as traditional to metal as you can get; there are no gimmicks or sing-along choruses in sight, just a pure relentless attack. Make sure to check these guys out at BAMF This July.

Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. This week, we present you the San Jose based death-metalcore act, Repaid in Blood.

For Fans of The Red Chord, The Acacia Strain, Veil of Maya, Despised Icon, Born of Osiris, etc.

One thing I absolutely love about covering the Bay Area Metal Festival is the fact that I’m discovering a lot of great bands from the Bay Area. One that really stands out to me is Repaid in Blood, from San Jose (aka Taqueria Heaven). I dig their technical, yet chugalicious approach to metalcore; think of a young, more rhythm-oriented All Shall Perish with the guitar soloing skills of Zero Hour. I can’t wait to see how their sound progresses over the next couple of years and I’m definitely stoked to see these guys in action live at BAMF. We’ve got some tunes and a music video for you after the jump!

We’re already one game into Round 2 of the 2011 NHL playoffs and our San Jose Sharks begin their series against the Detroit Red Wings tonight. I just want to say: DAMMIT I LOVE PLAYOFFS HOCKEY! Every game that I’ve been able to watch, I’ve been glued to my TV and they’ve all been great games. All of the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into every game and every series is so addicting. I had my phone set to send me updates for pretty much every scoring change for nearly every game, which made me sound very popular for the past week and a half.

There’s something ugly brewing down in San Jose, and it sure as hell isn’t Gordon Biersch. I finally got my hands on Filling Flasks, the debut EP from Flood Peak, featuring Peter Layman, Mike McClatchey, and Jake Wright. I’ve been following Layman and McClatchey’s sonic endeavors very closely over the past 8 years (Clearing Autumn Skies, Something Must Die, Apiary, Early Graves) and they’ve always struck me as musicians who write ahead of the curve in the originality department. Flood Peak is no exception.

After going 4-0 in less than twenty-five minutes of hockey in Game 3 against the LA Kings, the Sharks staged an unbelievable comeback to tie the game 5-5, before taking the cake with Devin Setoguchi’s wristshot in OT. Check out the highlights here:

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Starting goaltender Antti Niemi was pulled from the game a few minutes into the second period and Antero Niittymaki was left to pick up the reigns for the rest of the game. Personally, I can’t fault Niemi for the Game 2 loss, as the entire team was playing really shitty in front of him, but he looked very shaky in Game 3. So this begs the question, will the Sharks continue with their starting goalie in Game 4, or will they keep Niittymaki in the net? I don’t think Niitty got enough playtime in before the playoffs started, but I liked the way the team played in front of him. They recognized that he hasn’t played in a while and stopped relying on their goalie to make the saves when they’re being lazy, like they sometimes had been with Niemi in net; there seemed to be more of a sense of urgency once Niittymaki came in. Hit up our poll below and tell us who you think San Jose will start between the pipes on Thursday, and tell us why in the comments section below!

Most of us here at Wrecked are avid sports fans. Mostly Hockey ’cause it’s the most bad-ass of all sports. Fuck Football. (Editor’s note: No, Sean, fuck you!) So with playoff excitement and booze running through our blood, here are our playoff brackets with our first round predictions. We’ll be analyzing our predictions after each round and see who still has a job here at Wrecked… cause if you’re wrong, you get fired. Rules are rules.

We also strongly encourage anyone willing to take on the Wrecked staff to post your own predictions in the comment section below. Half the fun of sports is talking shit, making wild predictions, and arguing about stats, so bring it on!

I recently drove up to Kelseyville, CA (read: middle of nowhere) to visit a close friend of mine. Before I started my drive, I decided there were a few albums I needed to listen to, including Dredg’s El Cielo, Protest the Hero’s Scurrilous, Thrice’s Beggars, and last, but not least, Happy Body Slow Brain’s Dreams of Water. Admittedly, a couple of those were a bad choice for windy mountain roads late at night since they make me a bit sleepy, but they all have one thing in common: they are phenomenal albums. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Happy Body Slow Brain.